The field of the present invention relates to aircraft cargo-carrying systems and methods. In particular, apparatus and methods are disclosed herein for carrying airborne cargo with hover-capable (i.e., VTOL) aircraft.
A wide variety of cargo-carrying systems are available for aircraft. Some of these are described in:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,096 entitled “Vertical lift flying craft” issued Aug. 31, 2004 to Baldwin, hereby incorporated by reference;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,845,939 entitled “Tailboom-stabilized VTOL aircraft” issued Jan. 25, 2005 to Baldwin, hereby incorporated by reference;
U.S. Pat. No. 7,070,145 entitled “Tailboom-stabilized VTOL aircraft” issued Jul. 4, 2006 to Baldwin, hereby incorporated by reference;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,862 entitled “Cargo-carrying airplane” issued Sep. 7, 1948 to Conklin;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,176,940 entitled “Helicopter pod positioning and supporting means” issued Apr. 6, 1965 to Echeverria;
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U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,321 entitled “Helicopter truck dolly” issued Jan. 23, 1990 to Huhn et al;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,203 entitled “Aerodynamically-stabilized collapsible personnel and cargo basket for helicopters” issued Sep. 6, 1994 to Tollenaere;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,782 entitled “Aerial spray system” issued Dec. 21, 1999 to Kim et al;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,385 entitled “Retractable air deflector for a vehicle” issued Mar. 21, 2000 to Husted;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,834 entitled “Collapsible cargo management system for transporting payloads suspended from aircraft” issued Feb. 20, 2001 to Dietz et al;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,484 entitled “VTOL aircraft external load drag reduction system” issued Jan. 17, 2006 to Scott; and
Soviet Union Pat. Pub. No. SU-1832097-A1 entitled “Helicopter container type load external suspension system—has load cable, attached at one end to helicopter and at other end to swivel and to load attachment unit” published Aug. 7, 1993 in the names of Ishmukhametov et al.